Roster Reset | Now With Added Trialists!

I'm adding a "Trialists" section for the guys getting a try-out as we begin pre-season. While it's also tempting to throw some of the fringe guys from last year into this section, I'll let them hang onto their current Senior/Developmental roster spots until we hear otherwise.

1. (GA) Bill Hamid, GK
2. (I) Milos Kocic, GK - under contract, but for Dev Dollars again?
3. John DiRaimondo, M
4. Brandon Barklage, M - fully recovered?
5. Jordan Graye, D - we took a local kid so he could live at home on Dev Dollars, right?

Trialists

1. (I?) Lyle Adams, D - I'm assuming he'll want a senior spot, given last year. Also, he grew up in Florida, but does he have citizenship/green card?
2. Otto Loewy, D/M - don't know much save that he's really athletic, but has been on the shelf with injury; international status?
3. Daniel Wasson, M - washed out abroad, has MLS experience, eligible for Dev Dollars (25 or younger at start of season)
4. (I?) Two-Boys Gumede, M/F - an international if he won't settle for Dev Dollars; what fills first, our Boyzzz quotient or our South African one?

GA = Generation AdidasI = requires international roster spot, maximum of 8 internationals on senior roster, internationals on developmental roster don't count against that total [UPDATE: Scratch that! The MLS Rules & Regulations page seems to have changed. We're back to 8 internationals allowed on the total roster. Imagine that...]

Considering the fact that we're still shopping abroad, we've got a lot of internationals either on board, on the bubble, or trying to break in. Has that extra international spot reverted to its orginal owner yet or are we stuck with the league-mandated 8?

The common thread that the FO seems to be plucking at is physical tools. It looks like we're going to be faster and a bit stronger/tougher this year, if nothing else, and that's a good thing. But...I have to refer back to Kevin Payne's style-mandate from the fall. Doesn't this seem like the type of roster-building you'd be doing if you're looking to play some high-tempo, direct counterattacking Brit-ball? So what was all that bluster about pretty possession attacking flair?

Very strange...

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I'm keeping a running tally that I'll be using to fuel the Roster Reset posts over at the Facebook fan-site. If you have any comments/additions/info/etc. you can either leave them here or under the "notes" tab over there.

3 comments:

@ Barklage: aw a DCU.com interview with him at the doctor's office. Apparently he's been cleared to play. Sounds like he's back 100%. Also, I read on Behind the Badge an interview with Barklage's high school coach, who praised his athleticism to no end and had some great things to say about his intelligence. Barklage has a number of fans back home.

I'm rooting for this guy. I hope Onalfo gives him the chance to impress because I've been convinced that he'll take it and make the most of it.

On the athletes being brought in vs. the demand from above concerning style:

This probably will sound appallingly arrogant to any non-DC fans, but I think it's a matter of expectation. The players we see as oafs are seen as decent technically in other cities. So, the team being constructed might look to us like the emphasis is on speed and size over anything else, but within MLS we'll still be seen as a technical, passing outfit.

Proof? The reaction to trading away Fred. DCU fans thought he might do well under a different coach, but no one questioned the idea that Fred is a skilled but totally unreliable player. Outside of our little bubble, though, the reaction was "How could DC give up such a talented player?" It was as if we were discussing 2 separate players.

For your run-of-the-mill MLS team, Pontius would come off as one of the 3 or 4 best players in terms of technique and class. In DC, he's primarily viewed in terms of how he stands out as an athlete.

DC needs to get faster, stronger, and tougher, because we lacked balance. Most MLS teams tend to be slightly to the athletic side of any hypothetical athleticism-to-technical scale; we were probably too far to the technical side for our own good, since the cap prevents us from Barca-ing everyone to death.

Hope this makes sense. I've been drinking. I initially just wanted to thank you for putting up an accurate roster, since I lost my set on my old computer. It had been driving me nuts.

I agree with what I think you were trying to say, though I believe the schedule and Soehn's increasing desperation made that unbalance more deadly than it should have been.

The way I see it...

Plan B (after the preseason 4-back Plan A was abandoned due to Janicki being a hack) was to play 3-5-2, flood the midfield, control possession and rely on our technical guys to get the business done in front of net.

That worked fairly well until fixture congestion started to take its toll on bodies and team playing chemistry. When the tight passing and technique failed, we needed a Plan C to get physical and gritty and battle in the trenches to grind out results, but we didn't have the tools to implement it.

Or at least that's the way I'm seeing it through hazy, half-repressed remembrance.